Great Visiting Teams!

This month we have been able to meet a lot of great new people.

First up where a team of 8 . They were on a YWAM Discipleship training outreach. Their training started in Oxford NZ (Yeah!) for three months. The school divided into 3 different outreach teams and started a trip around the world. We received the South American team which was made up of 2 Koreans, a young Dutch couple and Americans. They had already been to Argentina, Chile and Peru. They were very happy to be with us as we had real toilets, beds and a planned schedule for their time with us. They had seen jungle and poverty on their trip and had lots of great experiences. Now they got to see life in a huge city. The only sad thing for us was that while they were in Argentina, the Kiwi honey and crunchie bars that they were bringing us was in a bag that was stolen :(

We have received 4 teams from Oxford over previous years and it seems that the lecture and outreach experiences are one of the best that the different YWAM DTS's offer. If you know someone interested in doing a YWAM school we would suggest you check this one out.
Nearly everyone from the ministry is involved in someway or another while teams are here but Carlos brings it all together, does all the prep work, organising schedules, and becomes the official interpretor and bus driver. There is a lot of work involved in hosting teams but it is well worth it as we can invest in the life's of others.

We were able to go with the team to visit the most outlaying place our ministries work. A children's fun activity group that is in the biggest slum area of the city. It takes one and half hours just to get there. There are an average of 70 kids who turn up to sing songs, hear Bible stories, play and laugh. The program had opened its doors in February and is lead by Mary our amazing Aussie Grandmother who lives among the children and families she is reaching out to. This was one of the favorite places the team went to. Other places that they visited was a program for prostitues and their kids, a drug rehab center for 7 to 13 year olds, some Sunday school classes and youth groups, as well as the different areas of our ministry.

There was a few days overlap while we welcomed another team . This one was 23 people from a church near Detroit. The construction team made up of 13 people stayed with us while the rest stayed elsewhere and ran a English program for the children at our kids school. Our boys didn't get to go, their English is very good.

The whole team was together on the weekends and for the evening meal. With construction projects there is a whole lot of different things to organise, materials, budgets, receipts, so we worked late every night. It was impressive to see the transformation of the ministry Light and Life school that they painted and the roof that they finished replacing. BJ (our kiwi friend) had done half of the roof and we were concerned that this team would not have the skills or the weight to finish the job. One of our Colombian volunteers while helping BJ had fallen through the roof. God had it all in control and all of our concerns where in vain. There were a couple of professional roofers on the team and they finished the job in 3 days. !!!

Next month we will fill you in on the next visiting team that arrives in a weeks time. From the different feedback from the church teams that we have had visiting over the years, if you get a chance to go on a short outreach team it is well worth it.
Our boys have been pretty bored at times over this long summer break, they go back to school in a weeks time. We are thankful that new missionary teachers have come to the school and that both boys will have good teachers.

We need to find a family to carpool to school with, as the school buses are very expensive and those we had pooled with before are going on furlough until January. In trying to reduce traffic jams, there is a law here where two days a week you can't drive your car, so we need to carpool.
Bruce, Katrina's brother comes for a visit at the end of August. We are looking forward to taking a few days break to show him around. This will be the 3rd brother who has visited, we hope to see the rest of the family over this way in the near future.

Carlos finished the book that he had been translating for the last few months. His pay was able to cover our boys enrollment into school for the next year and the first months school fees. Please pray that he would be given another book to translate soon as our expenses are a lot more than the support we receive.

We are very thankful that St Andrews church in Waipukurau and a family have joined our support team.

Please also pray for the ministries finances, we have a lot of expenses and very little money is coming in to cover them. The most stressful for us is the urgent payment of land tax on 8 properties. Daily interest is charged if you don't meet the payment dates. We need to see God's provision, for this as well as the daily food and educational costs of the children.

We would like to thank all for continuing being a part of our calling here in Colombia through prayer, giving, and support. We are overwhelmed sometimes by the loving generosity so many have shown us.

Many blessings,

Carlos and Katrina